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The Orioles could (should?) compete for the playoffs so the risk is that Jurrjens could be awful and cost them games. I haven't loved the Orioloes offseason. They haven't really done much and this is a division that is up for grabs right now.

The Orioles could (should?) compete for the playoffs so the risk is that Jurrjens could be awful and cost them games. I haven't loved the Orioloes offseason. They haven't really done much and this is a division that is up for grabs right now.

They could be in the race for the playoffs, but I see this as the type of move that needs to break right for them for it to happen. And as you noted, lacking a lot of potential for breakouts limits their chances.

Nothing not to like about this, as far as I'm concerned. The Orioles player development has mostly been kind of a disaster, but one thing they've tended to do well is reclaim pitchers off the scrap heap and get value out of them (Guthrie, Rodrigo Lopez, Miguel Gonzalez....) so this seems like a good risk to take. (On the other hand, Rich Hill, Dontrelle Willis.... but the fact that it often doesn't work is what makes it a risk!)

Good deal imho cheap but should of had an option year. But its worth the flyer. If he does well and they dont then you can flip him at the deadline. If they do well and he does well then offer arb and get the draft pick. And well if he sucks of 5 mil of petes dollars

Good deal imho cheap but should of had an option year. But its worth the flyer. If he does well and they dont then you can flip him at the deadline. If they do well and he does well then offer arb and get the draft pick. And well if he sucks of 5 mil of petes dollars

I think he has between 4 and 5 years of service time, so it has a built in option year.

I think it's a solid gamble, though Jair was certainly terrible last year. He'll be 27 and but a year removed from an All-Star season that was his second in three years with a sub-3 ERA in the rotation - all for a 1.5M minimum commitment.

I think it's cute when an 82-win team pisses on Pythagoras' grave and then stands pat, thinking they really have a 93-win contender.

Oh, I think it's just the opposite -- if the Orioles thought they were one player away from contending again they'd have made a big move. To me it looks like the Orioles are aiming to keep heads above water, put together an 80-85 win season and see how the young players develop. It's not clear there was a big move that made sense for the Orioles's needs this off-season.

Oh, I think it's just the opposite -- if the Orioles thought they were one player away from contending again they'd have made a big move. To me it looks like the Orioles are aiming to keep heads above water, put together an 80-85 win season and see how the young players develop. It's not clear there was a big move that made sense for the Orioles's needs this off-season.

Yeah, Double-Spin's got no idea what he's talking about. The Orioles aren't standing pat because they think they can piss on Pythagoras. They are standing pat because it was a lousy FA market, and their greatest improvement is likely to come from continued development of their younger players. I don't expect them to repeat their bullpen performance of last year, but I also expect them to gain some of that back from development from Jones, Weiters, Machado, and some of their young pitchers. Other than Hamilton and maybe a couple of the pitchers, I don't see any FA that looks like an improvement worth the cost. Wouldn't mind them adding Lohse or someone like that to take a bit of the load off the young guys, and that still may happen. If they can find an opportunity to trade Hardy for a younger 3B, 1B, or OF hitter, so they can move Machado over, that's the other key move this year to me.

If the Orioles are banking on repeating 1-run wins and extra inning victories to get back to the playoffs, they're going to be screwed.

If the Orioles are banking on Jair Jurrjens to be much more than a slop-up fifth starter type, they're also screwed.

I *loved* Jurrjens and was aghast when Braves fans wanted to sell high on him. They were right. He has bad peripherals, and post toe injury his mechanics have been crap and his fastball has been slow. Jurrjens can not live at 88 in the zone.

I agree that the Orioles recognize that last season was a bit of a fluke and decided that they weren't going to trade prospects or sign a top free agent on the assumption that they're going to compete again, and I think that's a smart move. The worst thing they could do would be to mortgage the future like the Mariners did when they traded for Bedard after a fluke season.

That said, I wanted them to sign Swisher or Youkilis for 1b, and if they didn't sign them or someone else in that price range because they have a hard payroll cap, that's troubling.

The Orioles made a lot of moves during the season. The team that finished the year wasn't exactly the team that started the year. So the fall-off might not be as dire as some people are predicting. Still, I would have liked to see them be more aggressive this off-season. Some of the big free agents weren't the right fit -or were too expensive- but they could have addressed holes at 1B and 2B, if nothing else. Like Yeaarrgghhh, I would have liked to see them sign someone like Youk for 1B. I would have also liked to see them grab an international player for 2B but the A's signed the Japanese shortstop (who is probably better suited to second in MLB) and the O's reportedly have no interest in the Cuban defector due to Angelos.

I think Angelos would sign Castro himself if he could play a decent 2b. Certainly the O's have no general policy against Cubans - they scouted Cespedes heavily, and after missing out on him, they signed Henry Urrutia, who defected from Cuba last year.

I think one of the reasons why they did not go aggressively after 2b or 3b is that they are still trying to figure out where Schoop will land. He played 2b/ss at Bowie, but then 3b in AFL, where they seem to think he can carry the bat. Frankly, with Davis and Betemit hitting versus righties, and Reimold (if healthy) able to spell McLouth in left, what they could have used was a cheap RH corner bat to kill lefties.